Adobe Photoshop CS - Overview of the Photoshop World

Adobe Photoshop is a testament to the success of strong and continued good development - but it does not always work out. One of our Adobe favorites, Live Motion with its concentration on artistic animation apparently did not earn enough mindshare against Macromedia's Flash.In contrast, Photoshop has continually built on its strengths and has become the professional standard for photofinishing. In fact Photoshop CS, can be used as prototype of Adobe's success.

Lets look at two innovations in Photoshop CS that help define the Creative Suite - layers and thumbnail browser page or the image browser. Layers are largely homegrown and certainly refined by Photoshop to be at the leading edge for at least 4 or 5 versions. True, artists have taken the layer ideas and stretched them into new directions like the new conditional layers or Layer Comps; but ideas from layer folders, colorings, and locking to mask and now effects layers are largely home brew. And they have revolutionized all graphics processing such that layers are a point of key innovation in video, animation, toon, 3D as well as bitmap photo processing.

On the other hand a thumbnail browser page, a la Jasc Paint Shop Pro had managed to elude Photoshop until two versions ago and the pressure of all those digital camera photos made it
a crying shame not to imitate. But now Photoshop is adopting the browser page with a vengeance - it is starting to become the digital processing hub for Photoshop. Adobe has matched many (but not all) of the speed and features of Jasc's Image Browser. But Adobe has gone on to add new features such as a metadata tab which contains the image file, EXIF, GPS and camera raw data for each image. The Keywords tab (see lower right corner in screenshot above) allows users to define their own keywords to describe the photo. The keywords then can be used to filter and sort the images that are displayed in the image browser. As well the image browser has its own menu of File, Edit, Automate, Sort and View commands that pull together a number of browser specific functions and operations such as PDF Presentation, Contact Sheet, Batch Process that use the images selected in the file browser for the chosen operation. So from a shortfall, Adobe has in the space of 2 revisions of its image browser created a powerhouse feature.

Photoshop World

So the remainder of overview will concentrate on the what is available in Photoshop CS in general and how it works all together. Photoshop continues to be the number one tool for photo image editing by dint of its superior color management capabilities and layer management. However, Photoshop has improved quite dramatically its brushes and touch up sophistication, its masking capabilities and ever expanding set of output options including the clever PhotoMerge capability the latest CS version, Layer Comps provide a simple way of getting different views to show from one stack of Photoshop layers. This feature, like the new Filter Browser for combining special effects are great added value.

And almost hidden on the sidelines is the other great Photoshop resource- Photoshop mentoring resources. There are dozens of websites with forums, reviews, tips, and tutorials - many for free and some in bargain CD format for sale. In addition, if you prefer to curl up with a book there are a scores of tomes on all aspects of Photoshop use and how to come up to speed in this photo finishing powerhouse. So it is important to realize that Photoshop is not alone; it comes in a Photoshop World of books and companion products that certainly contribute to its overall value.

First, Photoshop CS comes with a companion product Image Ready CS that specializes in Web optimized image output. Image Ready does duplicate much of the functional power of Photoshop including the same basic menu, toolbox and palette layouts. But Image Ready is without the File Browser and Multi-file processing, specialized touch up tools, the pen and vector drawing tools, a limited set of brushes, smaller number of color correction options and color management commands. However, Image Ready's layering, masking and filtering commands are nearly identical to Photoshop. The key additions are a whole range of Web image map, image slicing, image output optimizations and rollover plus animation creation tools. If you have to deliver to the Web, Image Ready is packed with features and tools to get your images there.

Another important feature of Photoshop CS is that it is now available in a value priced bundle. The Adobe Creative Suite for $1090US offers full-versions of Adobe Photoshop CS, Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe InDesign CS, and Adobe GoLive CS. The suite also incorporates Acrobat 6.0 Professional, and introduces the Version Cue file version manager. For artists and design shops this is a compelling bundle because users get 6 top caliber programs for the price of two. And Adobe has been working on integrating the various members of the product line. This is particularly true between Image Ready, GoLive and Photoshop for web developers. For designers, the links between Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are very tight and helpful. Finally the new JavaScript macros allow easy exchange of resources and processing between the key Adobe products and especially Photoshop.

But Photoshop hardly stands alone. Its PSD file format with all its layering information is supported by a vast array of competitive programs like Corel Painter, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, and a most of the video and 3d creative tools from Lightwave to 3Dmax. Photoshop is the standard for 2D and raster graphics processing and it shows with all the third party support.

Last but not least, Photoshop has a deserved reputation for having a substantial learning curve. I count 350 menu commands and 60+ toolbox tools to learn. But again, Adobe has been working on this. The Help system has a greatly expanded list of Howtos and those Howtos can be customized or added to by end users. In addition, Image Ready can act as learning program for some developers new to photo-finishing but having web savvy. An even better program as training wheels for Photoshop is Adobe Photoshop Elements version 3. Like Image Ready Photoshop Elements has many of the same menu commands and toolboxes. But Photoshop Elements restores many of the brushes, touchup tools and a full set of vector styles. Its help system also has a Howto plus special "make it so" prompts and error messages with more detailed explanations. In short Photoshop Elements are good training wheels for moving up to full Photoshop.

In sum, Photoshop is not a single program but a World of supporting programs from Adobe and many top notch graphics programs. These third party programs support Photoshop by importing and exporting from the rich .PSD file format - and are able to take advantage of the layer, properties and channel info provided there in.In addition, there is a world of training and help available from internet websites, books and courses (just follow the links below). When you buy Photoshop it is a premium price, but you also are buying into a World of Photoshop experience.